It took a while to get started on this car, because…
…I entered another distraction!
I took some time to fix up my daily driver, a 1990 Toyota pickup. Last year it ended up getting a new cylinder head so now it will be good for another 150,000 miles…or more. So I decided to treat it to some new shoes.
I added 16X7 BBS wheels. The rears are OE wheels from a Ford Crown Victoria and the fronts are from a Lincoln LS. They are the same size wheel but with different offsets. They originally came in silver but I had the centers powder coated “Enkei gold” and polished the lips for an 80’s look.
The more positive offset on the Lincoln wheels brought the front wheel in line with the wheel well.
I also run staggered tires size with 225’s in the rear and 205’s in the front. I added Bilstein shocks all around and the truck drives great. So yes, ANOTHER distraction! …but hey, I got a nice driver now.
Now, let’s return to regularly scheduled programming, the 1963 P1800S. This car have serial number 7771, hence the headline.
Assembly and disassembly goes in a certain order:
I wanted to install a new tank. Because of this, I might as well install new boards in the trunk as it is easier without the tank filler neck.
Since I wanted new boards, I need to install the bumper brackets first as they go in before the boards. If I am going to install bumper brackets, I should install new rubber gaskets for the brackets.
If I do that, I should polish the rear of the car first!
Are you with me so far? There will be a test later.
The new side boards. I duplicated the location of the brackets and jack handle holders.
I had a nice used license light assembly.
Nice tail lights with all new gaskets and bulbs.
New V-O-L-V-O letters. The challenge here is to spell it correctly on the car.
Brackets were cleaned and painted and the bumper chrome cleaned up very nice.
New tank installed.
Fuel sending unit and other goodies.
Side boards in place and the new filler neck tube in installed with the original Swedish ABA clamps. Kinda cool.
Bumper bracket rubber snubbers.
The rear looks pretty snazzy now.
Next: Plumb new fuel line, clean and go through the carburetors and then we should be able to fire. It has great oil pressure and compression.
Stay tuned!
